However, the commission stopped short of taking action to prohibit two other inhumane factory farming practices:

cutting off dairy cows’ tails, a painful practice that has been condemned by the dairy industry and the American Veterinary Medical Association, and;

the confinement of breeding pigs in gestation crates, which are so small, the animals cannot even turn around for years on end. This confinement system has come under fire from veterinarians, farmers, animal welfare advocates, animal scientists and consumers. It has been banned in nine states and elsewhere around the world.

“The commission made important progress by banning cruel veal crates, but it has a lot more work to do to fulfill its mandate of creating meaningful standards of care,” says Pam Rogers, Kentucky state director for The HSUS. “Kentucky should move quickly to ban the pork industry’s confinement of mother pigs in metal cages so small they can’t turn around and the cutting off of dairy cows’ tails.”